3 December 2004

Dear Friends,

This may be the most exotic place from which I’ll ever write you—sitting on the terrace of a 15th century Fort in Kabul, Afghanistan. As the sun sets behind the hand-built wood scaffolding of a resurrected minaret, I am struck by the magic of this place—so full of gallant people, so rich with opportunity. The challenge is to rebuild an entire nation from scratch, but do it right this time. Our co-founder, David Elliot, is restoring this Fort. Can we do the same for Afghanistan?

Everywhere I go, from talking with the Afghan Ministers, to meetings at the UN, to the NGOs who have been working here for over 10 years, my proposal to rebuild this country using the best sustainability practices is eliciting excitement.

What will it take to create a “Green” Afghanistan? The alternative is unthinkable. After the Afghans defeated the Soviet empire, the West walked away from this country, dooming it to a decade of civil war and fundamentalist horror. On September 11, 2001, that horror came home to haunt America. Now, while the eye of the world and the international donor community rests briefly on this ancient land, a window of opportunity has opened. If wasted, if “aid” money pays only for western contractors to build inappropriate, capital-intensive projects that deliver little real development to the millions of poor, more violence will ensue.

For example, the official energy proposal was to spend $2.7 billion, that the country doesn’t have, to build coal plants and dam every major river. That’s daft. I asked the Finance Minister, “Why make all the costly, vulnerable mistakes of the last century, in one of the world’s best wind and solar climates? You need energy NOW, in a diversity of small villages without a grid. When some of the world’s leading businesses and communities are going renewable, why not Afghanistan? He listened. The coal plants are now officially on hold! And I have to find a way to power his cement plant.

The same approach applies to meeting all basic human needs: water, sanitation, housing, transport, health care, etc. Rather than use the limited aid money that is dribbling into the country to create a welfare society here, let’s incubate a vibrant private sector that can go on delivering services long after the world’s attention has turned elsewhere.

That has been my message this week in meetings with government ministries, the international donor community and Afghan business people. Several groups have pledged a small amount of seed funding to get various Afghan demonstration projects underway, but more is needed.

In partnership with some of the best minds in sustainability from around the world and a young Afghan company, we have begun to inventory what’s already working, to determine the best, most appropriate technologies, and to identify sustainability experts who would be willing to bring their knowledge and resources here.

About a dozen such people have already told me they will help. With their assistance, and yours, we can lay out a strategy to meet Afghanistan’s development needs sustainably, using the private sector as the engine.

Each day that I’m here, more forces seem to align behind this wild idea. The most recent was a request from the Minister of Commerce to help create a business school here. I offered to help, telling the Minister what we’ve done at Presidio World College. On my return, I will see if Presidio wants to help the University of Kabul. This will add to the work already underway with Dr. Bernard Amadei of Engineers Without Borders to help rebuild the engineering department here to teach sustainability. If all goes well, Natural Capitalism will inspire a new generation of Afghans who can show the world a better route to peace and prosperity.

Meanwhile the team at home has been far from idle:

• Christopher Juniper continues to lead our work in Economic Development, in part by guiding the Army in implementing these ideas at the Ft Carson Mountain Post;

  Walter Link and I continue our Education and Curriculum work as we co-create Presidio World College, the first accredited MBA in Sustainable Management, and develop a leading curriculum in this field;

  Nancy Johnston and Ellen Drew conduct our public outreach projects, develop our website, and publish our newsletters (two in 2004—available on the website);

  NCS is also helping create the North American office of Women in Sustainable Energy (WISE) and working with the University of Colorado-Boulder to “green” its campus;

  In Chicago, IL, NCS is working with community groups and small manufacturers (in many ways eerily reminiscent of what I am doing here). This is informing our Research and Publications area, contributing to our book in progress Sustainable Business Practice—The Fieldguide to Natural Capitalism; and

  NCS is pleased to announce its tax-exempt status with the IRS, 501(c)(3), which makes charitable donations tax-deductible as of October 2004.

Launching a new venture is never easy. Your support of NCS will enable us to implement sustainability in countries, communities and companies.

Please consider making a donation online (click here). If you have time and inclination, I'd also love to hear what you're doing and how Natural Capitalism can help you.

As dark falls across this medieval city (the always sporadic power is out again, and it’s hard to write by oil lamp) I’ll end this letter. NCS’ next steps and mine depend on you. This important work is only beginning. Please consider joining us as a partner in the most important work of my lifetime.

With warm holiday wishes and best regards,


L. Hunter Lovins

P.S. If you would like to make your gift in memory of or on behalf of someone, please let us know, and we will provide proper acknowledgement. Also, if you would like to have your donation automatically withdrawn from your account, make a donation of stock, or are interested in sponsoring an event in your area, please let us know—we're happy to help with the arrangements.

NCS PROJECTS OVERVIEW:

Challenging times call for bold actions. Led by L. Hunter Lovins, NCS takes the sustainability movement to a new level of implementation.

NCS Mission:

Natural Capitalism Solutions (NCS) is a non-profit organization that educates decision-makers in business, civil society and government about the principles of sustainability, about Natural Capitalism and about the opportunities to achieve genuine progress through its implementation. In partnership with leading thinkers and groups, NCS creates innovative, practical tools and implementation strategies to enhance sustainability and prosperity. NCS conducts research into developing new approaches to business that makes productive use of all forms of capital, not just manufactured and financial capital. NCS develops examples of how to restore and enhance the natural and human capital that is crucial to the future survival of our planet and its people. NCS works with diverse institutions in society to show how, in a world in which business, government and civil society all vie for power, we can achieve a restorative economy by working together.

NCS Goals:

The goal of NCS is to achieve genuine prosperity within a vibrant environment and economy by acting in such a way as to:

• Demonstrate sustainable management techniques to corporate decision-makers, government officials and community leaders;

  Provide companies and communities with sustainable strategies to enhance the economy in ways that protect the environment, health and human satisfaction;

  Maximize the adoption of sustainable practices throughout society;

  Equip education and learning systems worldwide to teach sustainable management, practice and theory; and

  Achieve no net loss of natural or human capital.

NCS Principles:

NCS is based on the principles presented in the acclaimed book Natural Capitalism–Creating the Next Industrial Revolution, a leading whole-system sustainability framework co-authored by NCS’ President Hunter Lovins. In the five years since the book’s publication, Hunter and her colleagues have gained a wealth of experience in assisting companies, organizations and communities to profitably implement these principles and capture the advantages of sustainability. The principles (using radical resource productivity to cut costs and buy time; redesigning all products and processes using nature’s design; and managing all institutions for sustainability and prosperity) identify opportunities to reduce capital investment and operating costs while enhancing people and nature.

Your support will enable the NCS team to develop projects in the following areas of focus:

1. Education & Curriculum Development:In partnership with Walter Link of the Global Academy, Hunter Lovins has been instrumental in the creation of Presidio World College, the first accredited MBA in Sustainable Management. This effort has also developed curriculum for two courses (Sustainable Management and Implementation of Sustainability) that are ‘leading edge’ in both their content and delivery. We are expanding this curriculum to other MBA programs as well as to community groups and businesses. NCS is also developing standard practices and training materials as well as a textbook to support curriculum for business schools in partnership with Global Academy. In cooperation with Dr. Bernard Amadei of Engineers Without Borders and the University of Colorado, NCS is helping to develop new curriculum to teach sustainable engineering.

   Economic Development:NCS helps economies develop through three project areas. The first is small business and industry redevelopment projects in developing and post-conflict countries; we currently have projects underway in Afghanistan, Suriname and Jamaica. In Afghanistan, NCS is working with the Afghan government, U.S. government agencies, the United Nations Development Programme and an array of donor agencies. In Jamaica, we are working with the Dolphin Head Trust. NCS is also assisting organizations in implementing sustainability strategies. Currently we help the U.S. Army manage a 25-year sustainability plan for the Ft. Carson Mountain Post outside Colorado Springs, CO and are in preliminary discussions with the New England Small Farms Institute. The third project area is assisting local and state governments to implement sustainability projects. In partnership with the Wirth Chair at the University of Colorado at Denver and several public planning and economic development agencies, the “Colorado Sustainability Solutions Project” is undertaking to help local-level decision-makers with critical cost-effective access to technical (science and engineering) and sustainability resources.

   Research & Publications:NCS is seeking funding to support the work of writing several books. The first, Sustainable Business Practice—The Fieldguide to Natural Capitalism is already underway. It will present a whole-systems approach for implementing sustainability in an organization, expanding on the ideas in Natural Capitalism and answering many practical questions. This book is being co-developed with the Australian team at The Natural Edge Project, authors of The Natural Advantage of Nations: Business Opportunities, Innovation and Governance in the 21st Century (available Dec. 2004). The second book, Human Dimensions of Natural Capitalism, is a collaboration between Walter Link and Hunter Lovins. It will incorporate expertise gained since the 1999 publication of Natural Capitalism and tries to answer the question: "If Natural Capitalism makes so much sense, why isn't it happening faster?" Once we have completed those two, NCS will begin Sustainable Solutions for Critical Public Policy Challenges: The Elements of a Sustainable Economy, a compendium of sustainability-based solutions for the critical challenges that businesses, non-profits, governments and public policy-makers face.

   Public Outreach: This includes the NCS web site (www.natcapsolutions.org), newsletters (three a year), print, radio and TV interviews, pro-bono speeches and shared research. In the long-term, we are developing a Sustainability Network (experts who are in the field fostering collaborations).

Please see our web site (www.natcapsolutions.org) for more information!

Happy Holidays!